07 Jul It’s Not Just Endorphins—‘Hope Molecules’ Could Also Be Why You Feel So Good After Exercising
Just like a parent claims not to have a favourite child, I, as a Positive Psychologist, would like to think I don’t have a favourite happiness boosting or mental health strategy.
That being said, I do have a soft spot for exercise; because it’s available to everyone and it’s a fantastically accessible and affordable stress buster and mood enhancer.
Exercise is good for our bodies, and our energy levels, and it’s also great for our minds, and our happiness!
Interested in HOW exercise works and WHY it’s so good for those of us seeking to create more health and wellbeing and happiness? Read on …
via Well and Good by Rachel Kraus
It is a fact that exercise makes you happy, and happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t. (Well, by “fact,” we mean a fantastic legal argument from Elle Woods, but we digress…) But why does exercise have that happiness-inducing effect? Researchers are getting a better understanding of the answer to that question, and it could come down to a type of molecule called myokines.
Previously, endorphins have been the star of the show for the connection between exercise and mood: A good sweat session will cause a release of endorphins, which are neurochemicals produced in the pituitary gland that react with opiate receptors, meaning they make you feel really good. Working out also stimulates the production of serotonin and norphenylephrine, which are other happiness, wellbeing, and pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters.
These mood-boosting stimulations would probably be enough to give you that post-yoga glow. But there’s something even more going on.
Researchers have come to understand that when our muscles contract, they produce substances that get dispersed throughout the body. Some of these are chains of amino acids called myokines, and they are able to cross the blood-brain barrier—which means they can act on your brain. And when they get there, they improve brain function.
“Several myokines—irisin, hydroxybutyrate, etc.—have been shown to stimulate neuronal function and facilitate synapses, which are the way neurons communicate with each other,” Mychael Vinicius Lourenco, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who co-authored a recent review of research around myokines and brain function, previously told Well+Good…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE